The state-controlled Polish press has broadened the Government’s anti-Jewish campaign with accusations of disloyalty leveled against poets, journalists, physicians, police officials and military men of Jewish background, according to reports reaching here from Warsaw today. Seven more Jews were fired from mobs or expelled from the Communist Party today in the continuing purge that has thrown Poland into turmoil. The firings brought to more than 50 the number of Jews purged in the wake of political unrest stemming from student demonstrations for freedom of speech and association.
The Polish news agency "PAP" announced that those expelled from the Communist Party in the latest development were Tadeusz Hirschfeld, deputy director of a building materials plant in Lodz; Monisz Izralewicz, of the Lublin sugar plant, and Andrzej Przytyk, an official of the National Council in Lublin. Warsaw newspapers said Prof. Kazimierz Laski resigned as chairman of the Warsaw branch of the Polish Economic Society and Seweryn Stryjer was fired as deputy director of the State tourism department.
In an article reminiscent of Stalin’s "doctors" plot" in the early post-World War II years, the armed forces’ newspaper, Zolnierz Wolnosci (Soldiers of Freedom) accused a leading Jewish doctor of having "terrorized" Communist Party chief Wladislaw Gomulka and Polish President Marian Spychalski when they were Imprisoned in the early 1950’s. The paper said that Dr. Anatol Fejgin. director of a medical clinic catering to top government officials, "terrorized many respected Party members and social activists, among them Gomulka and Spychalski." Dr. Fejgin, then a departmental director in the Ministry of Security, was sentenced to three years in prison for abuse of authority after Gomulka’s return to power in 1956. The same newspaper denounced Stanislaw Wygodzki, a Jewish poet who emigrated to Israel a year ago.
The Government newspaper, Sztander Mlodych (Banner of Youth), today accused several journalists now in Israel or in Western countries of having maliciously lied to confuse public opinion and of having "applied moral terror to the Polish colleagues."
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.